This invention relates to surgical trays, and more particularly to surgical trays that are useful for temporarily storing catheters and guide wires during a surgical procedure.
Some surgical procedures require the use of catheters and guide wires. In the United States alone, thousands of procedures using catheters and guide wires are performed each year. The catheters and guide wires used in these procedures may be temporarily stored in a surgical tray and reused during the procedure. The surgical tray is typically located behind the physician, and turning to store the guide wires or catheters can temporarily distract the physician and increase the patient""s risk during the operation.
For example, when an angiography is performed, typically a catheter is inserted into the femoral artery over a guide wire (and often through a previously placed arterial sheath). The guide wire is often used in conjunction with the catheter for the purposes of manipulation and safe advancement of the catheter into a vessel lumen. Once the catheter tip is advanced to the appropriate location, the guide wire is removed, the catheter is flushed, and a test injection is often made with angiographic dye. Upon removing the guide wire, the angiographer is confronted with a situation where she has to turn her back on the patient for a few moments to place the guide wire in a basin containing heparinized saline. This is done to keep the guide wire moist so that a low coefficient of friction is maintained when the guide wire is reinserted into the catheter for subsequent uses. Often, the guide wire needs to be coiled to fit in the basin or needs to be reinserted into a guide wire plastic sleeve, which typically contains heparinized saline. Coiling the guide wire or reinserting the guide wire into a guide wire plastic sleeve requires some manual dexterity and time to clean and coil the guide wire or insert the guide wire into the guide wire sleeve. During these activities the angiographer is not focused on the patient.
For these and other reasons there is a need for the present invention.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for storing and retrieving a guide wire. According to one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for storing a guide wire comprises a tray having an inner surface, and one or more raised corrugated areas located on the inner surface. According to an alternate embodiment of the invention, a method for temporarily storing and retrieving the guide wire includes placing the guide wire in a slot formed in a raised corrugated area, such as a corrugated bar, and removing the guide wire from the tray by grasping a section of the guide wire separated from the inner surface of the tray by the guide wire storage solution. These and various other embodiments of the invention are described below.